In issues of education, it is hard to ignore politics. Trust me, I’ve been trying to avoid specific educational policy discussions in favor of more unexpected topics; in reality, however, education’s success relies on policy in such a way that I would be doing my Civic Issues blog a disservice to not address the relationship. After all, it seems to be a constant battle and perpetual discussion within legislatures and educational institutions themselves. Little did I know, in my quest to uncover the varying, conflicting, and cooperative ideas of what the picture of education should look like, I would instead discover that the conversation is rooted in a discussion of values. Also, I would come to discover Finlandophilia.
Apparently, discussions about Finland’s educational success have been taking place since it started entrancing and baffling nations – including the United States, and even Finland itself – by the nation’s exceptional scores in reading, mathematics, and science in the OECDs, or Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, conducted by PISA to survey world’s varying educational systems. A far cry from our expected international competitors and their accompanying cultures often defined by overworking, pressure, and performance (here’s looking at you, East Asia), Finland offered an oddly different perspective that seems to go against everything Americans push for in education.
For one, Finnish students don’t take standardized tests, save for one National Matriculation Exam around the end of high school. Most of us, however, would not have a hard time agreeing with the issues of standardized testing: they encroach on valuable class time and space for teaching and curriculum, stifle passion for learning, and offer poor incentives for funding. For more information on these examinations’ many insufficiencies, just consult Priyanka. However, what do we, as Americans, have to say about Finland’s decision to not start formal schooling until age 7? Or that the private sector is completely shut out of education, with no private schools or private universities in existence? How would Americans react to the fact that Finland’s education system seemingly rejects the value of competition, a classic American sentiment for driving excellence, in favor of equality? That all Finnish school are virtually the same, with no option to pay up for better education? Would some (here’s looking at you, conservative side) cry socialist?!
While these aspects of Finnish education are enough for adequate deliberation themselves, the most interesting facet of Finlandism in education, in my opinion, is how they approach the role of educators. I do hope that I’m not being too bold here, but I think many can acknowledge the stereotypes attached to Education majors in college. My best friend Steph, an Education major, will readily adopt an I-took-the-easy-route tone in her voice when asked her major (although, I swear, she is destined to become the most-loved teacher at whichever school she ends up in). However, educators of all levels seem to be held in a higher esteem in Finland, as indicated by the first couple paragraphs of one NY Times article:
Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish educator and author, had a simple question for the high school seniors he was speaking to one morning last week in Manhattan: “Who here wants to be a teacher?”
Out of a class of 15, two hands went up — one a little reluctantly.
“In my country, that would be 25 percent of people,” Dr. Sahlberg said. “And,” he added, thrusting his hand in the air with enthusiasm, “it would be more like this.”
In his country, Dr. Sahlberg said later in an interview, teachers typically spend about four hours a day in the classroom, and are paid to spend two hours a week on professional development. At the University of Helsinki, where he teaches, 2,400 people competed last year for 120 slots in the (fully subsidized) master’s program for schoolteachers. “It’s more difficult getting into teacher education than law or medicine,” he said.
Why is there such this pronounced difference in perceptions and responsibilities of educators? And is this high expectation of teachers – the “prestige, decent pay, and lot of responsibility” – what drives the success of equality-driven Finnish education? After all, there are virtually no standardized tests to keep them accountable, and no outside merit pay rewards and incentives for quality teaching. There is not even any conventional standardized grading, as students are individually graded by the professional educator. Educators’ quality is driven by their passion for teaching and growing students which, in turn, trickles down to their students’ matched passion and excellence.
It seems that Finland’s overall approach to education – which may seem choice-deprived on the outside, actually offers a plethora of freedoms: freedom for kids to be kids (oh, did I mention that the Finnish discourage homework?), freedom for teachers to develop their own curriculums and choose their own textbooks, and freedom for students to pursue their own passions within the classroom. Oh, and overall freedom from the horrible headaches of standardized testing.
But, the ultimate question: would this work in America? We are larger, have more impoverished as well as foreign students, have a lesser teacher-to-student ratio, and often times we simply just value the ability to choose. What can we learn from Finland, and what should we dismiss?
I think this is a really interesting approach towards education. There is definitely a mentality that “those who cannot do teach” I don’t know if that is in America, but one of the most important mentalities that we need to change is the idea that teachers are not valued because their salaries currently say that we don’t value them. I think the intricacies behind Finland’s system must be pretty elaborate and it probably doesn’t work on the estate tax system. I don’t fully understand the US system, but the estate part really promotes more and more inequity. Poorer children in poorer neighborhoods are given a poorer education. One of the primary things that America has to deal with that is different from Europe is our obvious size. This is one of the reasons that things like education might be better off funded and organized on the state level. One method that some people are exploring is the voucher system that would introduce a system of competition between schools. However the idea that the schools in Finland all have a sense of parity is really interesting. I think Matt is right to question the viability of such systems implemented within the United States which is much larger, complex, and diverse, however clearly the United States is due for change with many of it’s systems from schooling to health care. Our friends in Europe have systems that have clearly demonstrated successful results and the United States should at least try to emulate some of these results. I would also be very interested to see if unions are commonplace in Finland because I wouldn’t be too interested in seeing unions still existing even after teachers are given a pay raise. I still think that there are many very bad teachers in America.
This is an awesome post, Shannon, not just because it taught me a lot about a different educational system, but because it really uncovered the values that are behind those differences. Your point about diversity is particularly important, and something I wouldn’t necessarily have considered. If all the children in the U.S. stayed home until age 7, it’s possible that many of them would struggle much more than the children in Finland do.
I agree with Manas, too, that it seems like valuing teachings is something that Finland does really well. Could we replicate that? What keeps us from valuing the time and knowledge of teachers, so that the very best students are the ones who end up wanting to each? I wonder what it would take to put teachers in the same category as doctors or engineers.
I love that the Finnish put such a huge emphasis on the value of teachers. I read an article about the Finnish education system, and I saw that essentially, a teacher is as respected as a doctor or a lawyer, which is something we lack here in the United States. Educators need to be more respected for the things they do, and that starts with ensuring that our educators are well-paid and love the jobs they do. You’ve encouraged me to discuss the Finnish education system in my CI blog next week because it’s starkly different from the one we have–it seems that the goal in Finland, rather than to encourage competition and finding jobs that boost the economy–is to (gasp!) actually educate kids. How shocking. I think that the culture in Finland is conducive to this no-homework, late schooling, no-standardized testing mindset, but I don’t think that it would work out with America. We’ve already proven that we’re entirely averse to revolutionizing any sort of system that already exists (except for the only socialist policies that help the poor, like welfare and social security), so it’s a shame that we aren’t more openminded about our educational system. I really enjoyed reading your post this week, and I hope that someday our country can move forward and change the way we think about learning.
A few weeks back, Allan’s blog post discussed the differences between the United States and Northern European nations, such as Norway, Finland, and Sweden, which have more functional governments and societies as a whole. Not surprisingly, the Northern European countries, and Finland in particular have the best education systems. I think a large part of the Finnish success has to do with the homogeneity of the population. Most Finns have the same ancestry, religion, cultural background, and the wealth disparity in Finland is significantly lower than that of the United States. Also, most Finnish children grow up in stable families which contribute to their success. On the other hand, the United States is extremely diverse for almost all of these aspects. Although we are the richest nation in the world, the wealth disparity is much greater than that of Finland. We also are a giant patchwork of different religions, ancestries, family structures, and cultural values. I think it could be found that the best, well-funded children in the United States who attend the best American do better than even the best Finnish children, but the worst Finnish children do much worse that American children. I think that we can learn from the Finnish education system by paying our teachers better than doctors and lawyers. Also, I completely agree with the concept of “educational freedom” to explore the topics that interest them. The question is, how can we implement this here in the United States.